consumer psychology

n. Consumer psychology concerns all aspects of human behavior pertaining to consumption (obtaining, consuming, and disposing of products and services) and the operations of the consumer market. Research in consumer psychology covers at least four broad topic areas: (1) perception and experience of products and services; (2) representation and processing of market information (e.g., branding and pricing information in advertisements); (3) processes and consequences of preference, choice, and decision, in both individual and group settings; and (4) social interactions in consumption environment (e.g., consumer-salespeople interactions). Studies usually intersect topic areas with psychological variables, such as personality and individual differences (e.g., gender and cohort effects), cultural influences, emotion and motivation, nonconscious and automatic factors, and interpersonal and group dynamics.

一 SYYC, CYC